


Dinner at Barbara's

by crookedspoon



Series: Feed Me, Also, River God [23]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Community: ladiesbingo, Gen, Japanese food, Vegetarians & Vegans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 21:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3462962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chosen families.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinner at Barbara's

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WildAndFreeHearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildAndFreeHearts/gifts).



> Fills "Takeout" at ladiesbingo.

Barbara's apartment is dark when she returns home that night. She wonders where the girls could be and hopes she hasn't done anything to drive them away. It might be a little selfish of her to want them around, unable to bear the hotel-like lifelessness of her cold, empty rooms, but she reminds herself that they don't have anywhere else to go to. All three of them benefit from the arrangement, so it should be okay.

They make her feel safe, even if they can't protect her from the likes of Victor Zsasz, or she them. Their presence, though, keeps the nightmares at bay.

Barbara flicks on the lights and finds the girls asleep on her couch, curled up beneath a blanket.

She places her grocery bag on the kitchen counter and begins stocking the fridge as quietly as possible. They've marked off the middle compartment for themselves, with Ivy's soy milk on the one side and Selina's cheese on the other. Barbara smiles. It reminds her of long-ago college days, when apartment-sharing had seemed like the ultimate freedom, although her friends in the bigger living communities had complained about their groceries – yogurts and the like – going missing and turning up in the trash later, having been appropriated by no one in particular.

A few moments into her nostalgia about the little dorm life mysteries, Selina pads up to her, rubbing her eyes. Apparently, Barbara hasn't been quiet enough.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Barbara asks.

"Nah, I'm done sleeping for now," Selina says and cups a hand over her mouth to hide a yawn so wide her jaw cracks. "What's for dinner?"

"You guys haven't eaten yet?"

"We thought we'd wait for you. You said you'd buy food?"

"Oh, okay. That's sweet of you." Barbara didn't expect that. The girls are rather self-sufficient and seem a little awkward whenever she's around. Barbara thought they would have made use of her kitchen already. "I can make us something. Or we'll order takeout if you prefer. I rented some movies we can watch while we eat."

"I'm fine with either," Selina says and stretches. "Pizza's always good. Chinese, too. Or Thai."

"Do you have vegetables?" Ivy walks up to them, still wrapped in the blanket, and rests her head against Selina's shoulder. "I'm craving some cauliflower right now. Avacados would be good, too."

Selina frowns at her as though Ivy's gone cuckoo, and makes a face when she thinks Ivy can't see. It's rather adorable.

Barbara has yet to get used to young girls liking their greens, since she herself didn't when she was their age. Going by Selina's reaction though, times don't seem to have changed as much as much as she thought. Ivy's case seems to be a special one.

"Do you like sushi?" she asks. "I know a fantastic Japanese place that has delicious maki sushi, with avocado and cucumber in them. Wouldn't that be something for you?"

"Can I have some yasai soba as well?"

"Of course."

"Just tell them not to use any dashi or put bonito flakes on them. The Japanese could have a nice vegan cuisine if they wouldn't insist on adding fish to everything."

"You haven't even _been_ to a Japanese restaurant," Selina points out. "How would you know what they use?"

"It's what they do in Japan, anyway."

"Whatever." Selina rolls her eyes. "I take a huge bowl of curry ramen."

"Wait a second," Barbara says, "I'll get a pad to write everything down."

The girls follow her with their eyes. "So, what movies did you get?" Selina asks.

"They're in my handbag."

Selina slinks over to where Barbara left it on the dresser, and fishes out the DVD boxes. She looks through them, Ivy peeking over her shoulder.

"These are all chick flicks," she complains.

"You don't like those?" Barbara has picked out some of her favorites: _Pretty in Pink_ and _Breakfast at Tiffany's._ She was hoping to educate the girls if they didn't know these already. They might appreciate them.

"No," both say in unison.

"Come on, it'll be fun. I bought us some ice cream, too, for the occasion."

"I don't eat ice cream," Ivy says.

"That is why I bought some sorbet for you. I hope you like strawberry."

Ivy perks up and welcomes the tub with eager hands, inspecting the ingredient list.

"There's no milk in it, I checked."

"Sometimes they put other stuff in that I don't eat," Ivy murmurs and rolls her eyes, but her face light up. The sorbet must have passed muster. "They hide them behind E numbers or complicated-sounding chemical names, so you have to know what you are looking for. That's why I prefer homegrown food."

"Oh, zip it, Ivy." Selina sounds like she's used to small rants like these. "You're like a broken record."

"Okay," Barbara says cheerfully, breaking up the girls before they start a fight. "Why don't you pick out a movie while I order the takeout?"

"Only if we watch some of the more interesting stuff in your collection."

"If you find any," Barbara smiles. She doubts they will, at least not if they're looking for action-packed movies with a lot of guns and gang violence. There are some nice murder mysteries they might like, though.

As she listens to the phone ring and watches the girls argue, she wonders not for the first time if the warmth that blooms within her is what a mother feels for her daughters.

Watching them squabble over her movie collection, Barbara thinks how wonderful it would be to have daughters of her own. She would no longer need to cling to orphan girls wary of attachment to chase away her loneliness. But these girls need a home and a family too, no matter how much they'd like to deny it. And if Barbara can provide it, even if just for the time being, she'd gladly do so.

**Author's Note:**

> All images from [Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Vegan_food).


End file.
